


Fighting with My Sheets

by cornerstoned21



Category: The Last Shadow Puppets
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 05:23:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2535713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cornerstoned21/pseuds/cornerstoned21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex has insomnia. Only one thing (or person) seems to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fighting with My Sheets

Alex doesn’t tell people about the insomnia anymore.

In the beginning it was all he’d ever complain about. Most mornings would find him struggling to pull himself out of a restless doze as he repeatedly hit the snooze button on his phone. He’d drink countless cups of coffee just to try to maintain a baseline energy level but with each day that passed he’d found it harder and harder to pretend that everything was okay.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. No, the worst of it was other people, how they felt some compulsion to compete with him. He’d mention the insomnia and sleeping pills and suddenly everyone could relate to how he felt. Everyone had sleepless nights once in a while – a fact they were sure to mention and look at him pityingly.

At first Alex had just brushed off their comments as misguided but empathetic attempts to relate. But as the sleepless nights stretched into sleepless weeks and months he began to lose his patience. It began to annoy him that people thought they knew what he was going through when it was oh so clear they had no idea. They didn’t have permanent bruises etched into the skin under their eyes from chronic sleepless nights. They didn’t put off going to bed until they were ready to drop from exhaustion because they were too afraid they’d end up spending another night tossing and turning if they went to bed too soon. They didn’t know how stressful it could be – wanting sleep but not being able to get it.

Alex tried countless sleeping pills that his doctor prescribed him but it was impossible for him to keep a set sleep schedule while on tour and the pills were only marginally helpful at best.

The only thing that ever seemed to help was Miles.

Something about the other lad’s presence seemed to help Alex relax in a way that he was never able to usually. It didn’t matter what they were doing, they could spend the night watching horrible movies on the telly, but by the time Miles was getting up to leave Alex would find his eyes struggling to stay open. But although he slept better on those nights then he ever did Alex hated to see his friend go.

And so one night when Miles stood up to leave, Alex reached out and grabbed his friend’s sleeve. Miles didn’t speak but he looked at him questioningly.

“Don’t go?” Alex asked simply, tentatively. For one brief moment Miles hesitated and Alex swore his heart stopped beating. Finally Miles smiled and sat back down in his previously vacated seat and turned his attention back to the telly. They sat in silence for a minute before Miles reached over and gently tugged Alex so that they were sitting practically on top of each other and Miles’s arm was around Alex’s shoulders. Alex let out the breath he didn’t even know he was holding.

Miles chuckled softly and Alex swore he could feel the vibrations from where they were pressed up against each other.

“All right, love?” Miles asked softly.

Alex nodded with a smile and leaned back so that his head was resting on his shoulder.

“Never better,” he admitted as he closed his eyes, enjoying just how right the moment felt. When Alex dozed off not long after Miles stayed with him on the couch, only moving to cover them with a blanket before falling asleep as well. When he woke up the next morning Alex felt utterly refreshed for the first time in months.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if anyone really cares to hear what inspired this but for those who do:
> 
> I have insomnia. Not the once-in-a-while kind but the chronic kind. It's genetic and stressed based and, well, my life is extremely stressful. I've been off and on serious medication for it since I was in high school. I'm currently off but need to get back on and let me tell you, it's not much fun. But the thing I hate the most is when people who don't have insomnia think that just because they have trouble sleeping occasionally they can relate to you, or they say they have insomnia. If you can take NyQuil to fall asleep you probably don't have insomnia. But I do have a good night of sleep from time to time and those times always seem to coincide with nights I spend with my boyfriend. So that's where the inspiration for this drabble comes from.


End file.
